Sonic:After Years
by Legends di Angelo
Summary: There a few things going to be happening in this story. Read and enjoy
1. Ch: 1

"Thank God!" Sonic, the famous blue hero hedgehog, said as he answered the door. Greeting the pink hedgehog, Amy Rose. "I really need a sitter, and you were the only person I could call!"

"Its no problem." The pink hedgehog assured, walking into the house, "Why did you need a sitter? It's not for Tails or Silver, you've trusted the two home alone before, and you've never worried about someone breaking in. So what's it for?"

"Um, well-. I think it's easier to show you."

Sonic grabbed Amy by the hand and rushed her through the house, up stairs and into a room decorated for a small child. It was still early in the morning, so it was still dark in the room; but Amy knew what was in the room already, so she had no problem stepping over the toys that scattered the floor. The dresser and toy chest in the room were nothing more than blobs of shadows, trying to blend in with the darkness.

When they got to the bed, Amy could see something lying in the bed.

"Sonic, what is the-?" Amy gasped as she put her hands to her mouth, "Sonic did you adopt a child too? I thought that-"

"No!No,no,no,no!" The hero stopped the female hedgehog, "But that'd make the situation simpler."

Sonic pulled a phone out of his tan pants pockets, turned the flashlight app on, and flashed it on the bed. Revealing a small hedgehog child, around 4; Amy guessed, a child with black quills and red highlights on the tips.

"Hey, he kinda looks like Shadow!" She whispered. Sonic nodded his head the kid, "It is Shadow!" She gasped,loudly.

"Sh!" Sonic hushed Amy, and covered her mouth. "You trying to wake him up?"

Sonic lead her out of the room. When they were out of the room, Sonic quietly shut the door.

"How did that happen to him?" Amy asked, "Is this some prank?"

"No, I swear!" Sonic said, putting his right hand on his heart, and his left hand in the air. "No one is sure what was happened."

"Well it sounds like you have a story to tell." The pink hedgehog sighed, leading Sonic back down stairs and to the couch.

"But I have to-!"

"Then tell me quickly."

It was a warm summer day, the hottest day of the season. Though a lot of people would be in their homes, roughing out the heat with their AC. But in the infamous Sonic the Hedgehog, was out on a track field; with his friends Shadow, Silver, and Tails.

"You do know it was a waste of time coming out here,right?" The hero said to his black quilled friend, as he stretched, "They don't call me the fastest thing alive for nothing."

"I wish you would be the quietest thing alive." Shadow sighed, as he stretched as well, "I mean your mouth is the only fast thing on you!"

"You won't be saying that when you eat my dust. Are you two done yet?"

"Almost!" The two tailed fox replied, from up on a pair of bleachers. Him and Silver had on weird, high-tech, blue glasses

, and earpieces on. They were typing in the air, like you would on a computer, but nothing was there. Around the two, small orbs with cameras in them,hovered. The technology was invented by Tails. Supposably, there was a keyboard and screen in front of the two, and they could only see them with the glasses, and could hear videos if they streamed them. They also controlled the controlled the cameras with the keyboard.

"I'm not sure how I feel about being recorded every time we compete." Shadow said, "The government is still after me, for some reason."

"Really?" Sonic asked surprised. It had been a few years since the incident in space. Soni thought all of the nonsense with Shadow being hunted would have been over. Especially in Soniville. Soniville was made when everyone got back to earth from the incident. It was a place that Sonic's kind, and humans could live in peace; with no racism or any of that junk. Even the president set up a special system people had to go through to see if they would be allowed to live in Soniville. Of course Sonic's people were free to live wherever they wanted Then if Sonic's people didn't want live on the earth, they could live on Mobius. Transportation between the two worlds was open twentyfour seven. Which worked out, because some of Sonic's people didn't like the rules that the earth had. The big one being, you had to wear cloths. Even Sonic had to obey the rules. He was currently wearing silky white shorts and a white undershirt, and Shadow wore the same.

"Yeah, so if Silver puts it on Youtube, it better not cause me any problems."

"It won't." Sonic assured

"Okay!" Silver yelled, as the camera bots flew all across the track field, ready to capture the race.

"You ready?" The blue hedgehog asked, stepping up to the white line, painted on the green concrete.

"As always." Shadow chuckled, stepping.

"Three!" Tails started counting down, "Two! One! GO!

As quick as lighting, the two hedgehogs ran off leaving a wall of dust behind them. After being editing, Silver would make sure that the race would be watchable, but for now; the race only lasted a couple of seconds.

"I won!" Tails, suspected Sonic saying. The wall of brown dust was covering the two hedgehogs.

"You did not!" Shadow snapped, "I won!"

"You're out of your mind Shady!"

"Am not, and what have I told you about call me that?"

"Don't worry about it." Tails told the two, walking up to them, "Silver and I will check the video recording when we get back."

"Good." The two said at the same time.

"But who do you think won, Tails?"

"I don't know, you both have amazing speed levels. So it was anyone's game. Shadow, you okay?"

The fox just happened to look over at the hedgehog, and noticed that he was steaming. Like a piece of machinery that had been running to long, and over heated.

"Im hot!" He snapped, pulling at his shirt, "Like not just warm."

"You okay Shady?" Sonic asked, putting his hand on his friends should, but jerking it off, "Hesh, that burned! I know you don't like me calling you Shady, but that took burning mad to a whole knew level!"

"Nows not the time to be cracking jokes!" Tails scolded, "Get him something cold."

"R-right!"

Sonic zoomed off, and came back with a bottle of ice cold water.

"Here you go Shady," He said, opening up the bottle and pouring it on Shadow. Small chips of ice could be seen floating on the water.

"Still burning!" Shadow cried.

"Something's not right!" Tails said, walking over to Shadow, showing that he was closer to Tails height. Also showing Shadows baggy, and sweat drenched, clothes.

"I think we should get him to my lab."Tails suggested.

"Right! Silver!"

"Huh?" The teen said looking up from his screen

"You're driving yourself home." Sonic said, tossing him the keys to his truck, then grabbing Shadow and Tails and running them home.

"That's all the time I can spare right now." Sonic said, jumping up from the couch, "I have to book it. Get Tails to tell you the rest when he wakes up."

Sonic ran out the door, leaving Amy.


	2. Ch: 2

With Sonic gone, Amy decided to get up and look around the house. It looked better than any other house that had three teenage guys living in it. Of course Amy did drop by at least once a week, and she knew Sonic had the guys clean the house a little bit whenever she did. But Sonic must of tried and clean the house by himself, since it was last minute. There was only a few shirts and socks laying on the white rug, but not enough to make a cave out of. On the black chalkboard wall, the wall that the stairs were on, different drawings, problem, and list were on it; with different colored pieces of chalk scattered at the bottom of it. Amy took noticed in the problem 64=10 problem, that was written in red chalk.

"He's getting better at math." Amy sighed to herself.

"Amy?" Someone asked at the foot of the steps. When she looked, she saw Sonic's best friend Tails, dressed in a pair of blue silky shorts, and a white undershirt. It was obvious he had just woken up.

"Morning Tails." Amy smiled

"Um, hi." He yawned, rubbing his eyes, " What are you doing here?"

"Oh, Sonic called me, and asked me to come over."

"So you know about Shadow?"

"That he's small, yes. But I don't the whole thing. Sonic tried telling me some of the story, but he had to leave. He told me, to tell you, to tell me the rest of the story."

"Oh, ok. Where did he leave off?"

"He just ran you and Shadow home."

Sonic slid to a holt as the three got to the white door of the house. Sonic threw the door opened, and rushed them down to the basement, or Tails' workshop, as Sonic and Silver put it. He flipped on the light switch and they all went down the stairs.

"So what do you have to fix Shady up, Tails?"

"Nothing." Tails said, taking Shadow, who had shrunk even more and was only wearing his sweat soaked track suit; and put him in a steel cylinder. After shutting the door he pressed a giant red button and the sound of water could be heard. "The only thing I have here is the radiation shower, which will cool him off."

"Wait, you don't know what's happening to him?"

"Of course not." Tails said, "Why would I know that?"

"I don't know, you're the brains of our group, so I just sorta assumed."

"What do I look like, a genius? I'm an engineer, not some sort of scholar. Whats next, do you want me to make some sort of potion that change him back?"

Sonic was going to say something, but the water sound stopped and was replaced by a tapping sound.

"Sounds like he's done." Tails said, opening the door. "How do you feel?"

"C-c-cold." A small voice said from in the shower.

"Shadow?" Sonic asked, looking at Shadow and not believing what he was seeing.

"Wh-what?" Shadow asked, as he stepped out onto the workshop gray concrete floor, icey cold water dripping off his quills. He hugged himself ashe shivered and looked around the room. Noticing how big everything seemed. "Why does everything look so big?"

"Were not any bigger then we were Shadow." Tails explained, wrapping Shadow in towel, "You're just a good deal smaller."

"What?" Shadow snapped, "You're joking,right? This is some sort of prank.You've made some sort gas that's making me see things weirdly."

"No, I swear Shady!" Sonic said, bending down, "You're seriously small, like kid small. Little kid, small."

"What!This isn't real!" He said, "I don't believe you guys."

"Sonic, Tails!" Someone called from upstairs, "Im home!"

"Oh, Silver's got a recording!" Tails said, snapping his fingers, "Silver, we're down here!"

"Why did you guys just leave like that?" Silver asked, walking down the stairs, "Hey, whos the kid? Sonic, you didn't adopt a kid did you?"

"Dear God, no!" Sonic said, "Did you not see what happened at the track field?"

"No, did I miss something?"

"Yeah." Tails said, taking Silver's head set, and pressing a few buttons. A blue screen appeared in front of them all.

"The cameras were still recording when it all started." Tails said, as he started playing the video. When it got to the part where Shadow began to overheat.

"Wha-, what is this?" Shadow squeaked, as his eyes gazed in horror. It was very clear how much he shrunk in it.

"So wait you're Shadow?" Silver asked, looking at the dark quilled hedgehog.

"Try to keep up Silver." Tails sighed, "How do you feel, Shadow?"

"C-cold."

"Yeah, that's because the radiation showers water is a few degrees off of being at freezing point. Other than that, do you feel okay?"

"Yes-s."

"Maybe we should make sure he doesn't freeze to death, before we ask anymore questions." Silver suggested, picking up Shadow, "I mean, the poor guy is shivering."

Shadow blushed, but not sure from what. From Silver picking him up, or the fact that Silver was warm and he didn't want to be moved his freezing body from the heat.

"I guess." Sonic said, "But we don't have a lot of clothes that will fit him."

"I d-don't care!" Shadow stuttered, "Just get me something warm!"

"Yes sir." Sonic sarcastically said, running upstairs then running back down stairs. He didn't show Shadow what he was going to be wearing, and just dressed him.

"There." Sonic sighed, "That should keep you warm."

Shadow looked at what he was wearing. It was some baggy one piece pajama set, that was green with red stripes on it. Only his feet and hands were peeking out of the piece of clothing.

If it wasn't for the fact it was warm, Shadow would've ripped of the childish article of clothing off. He was positive that it was making him look more like a child.

"So, fox." Shadow sighed, breaking free from Sonic's arms and landing on the floor. "Do you have a way to fix me?"

"Like I told Sonic, no." Tails explained, "What am I Hollywood Iron Man?"

Everyone gave Tails a confused look.

"The original Iron Man was a mechanic, who was amazing with technology. Not the super genius that hollywood portrays him as." Tails explained, "I'm just a gear head, while everyone makes me out to be some all-knowing fox. The only thing we can hope for, is whatever has happened to you will wear off."

"What?" Shadow gasped, his jaw dropping. "I can't be seen in public like this. If those jerks from the government find out, they'll have me captured for sure."

"Don't worry Shady." Sonic said, patting his friend's head, "You can stay here until this blows over. We even have an extra room for you to stay in."

"Wow, really?" Shadow asked, excited; his red eyes sparkling.

"Yeah." Sonic assured, "Well I'm tired of being down here. I'm heading up."

Sonic started to climb up the stair, with everyone following him. Shadow realized how hard it was going to be, to do normal things. Instead of walking up the steps, it felt like climbing a rock wall. His small legs didn't reach the wooden steps, so he had to climb up each step.. But, thankfully, he did manage to make his way up the stairs and into the house. The cool AC hit him like a brick, and he began to shiver. He was warmed up a little bit from the clothes he was wearing, but not enough to survive the cool house.

"You okay?" Silver asked, "Are you still cold?"

"N-no!" Shadow snapped, "I'm just shaking because it what all the kids are doing now a days for fun."

"Hesh, you don't have to be so snappy about it." Silver sighed, "Thankfully Sonic is already on it."

Silver lead Shadow into the living room, where Tails was lying on a couch, watching some show, that didn't interested Shadow. He just looked around the house, wondering why it was so clean. There was the random piece of clothing lying here and there, and dirty dishes on the table. But other than that, the house looked nice. The only thing off was a wall painted chalkboard black, while all the other wall were white. Different, random things were drawn on the wall. List, problems, drawings; most on the board was childish gibberish. Crude drawings, surgery treats, and basic math problems. 22=4, 8-3=5, 64=10.

"I guessing these aren't yours." Shadow said to Sonic as he walked in, "These seem a little complex for you."

"Ha ha ha." Sonic sarcastically said, handing Shadow a plastic cup, filled with something hot.

Shadow almost dropped it when he grabbed onto it, "What is it?"

"It's called hot chocolate."

Shadow sniffed the beverage before taking a small sip from it. "Gah!" He screamed, dropping the cup. "Hot!Hot!Hot!"

"Thats why its called 'Hot Chocolate'" Sonic sighed, picking up the cup; revealing a few brown stains that the hot chocolate left, "Good thing I gave you the sippy cup, or I'd be cleaning up a big stain. Here."

Shadow blushed, taking the cup. "Sorry."

"Its no problem." The blue hedgehog sighed, "Just watch the TV."

Shadow obeyed, and went back to the living room, taking a seat on the carpet. He made sure to take small sips of his beverage, so he wouldn't burn his tongue off. He watched the tv, hoping that he would change back to normal. Eventually, as the sun began to set and they turned the lights on, someone knocked at the door.

"It's the pizza guy." Sonic said, getting up and answering the door. Tails and Silver followed him. When they came back out, Tails handed Shadow a paper plate with a piece of pizza. He didn't waste anytime bitting into the pizza, it had been the first thing he had eaten all day. The taste of cheese and sauce danced in his mouth, as he devoured it.

"Whoa, were you hungry, Shadow?" Silver asked.

"Starving!" Shadow said, "Can I get another piece?"

"Yeah." Silver said, taking his plate, "Let me get it for you."

Silver walked into the kitchen and back out with another slice of pizza. "There you go."

"Thanks." Shadow said, taking the white plate, "You know, I was worried that you all would be picking on me."

"Really?" Sonic asked, "Well we've learned our lesson about picking on little kids. But if you want, we can-."

"No, I'm good!"

Sonic laughed, then returning to his pizza. As the night fell, Shadow's eyes began to feel heavy, and tried to keep them open. But it soon became too much, and his closed his eyes, falling asleep.

"Then Sonic put him in Fangs' room." Tails said, with a mouth full of food. While he told the story, Amy made him some food.

"Ok, and from what I saw; he's still like that."

"So Amy." Tails started, "If you're here, who's watching Fangs?"

"Oh, well I got-." The color drained from Amy's face, "I forgot him!" She screamed running out the door.


	3. Ch3

"Mm!" Shadow grunted, as he woke up and stretched his arms out. He had the craziest dream that he had shrunk, and for all reasonable standards, was a child;and he was hiding out a Sonic's so the government wouldn't catch him.

Of course, the room that he sat in felt different, and his clothes felt off. They were too soft, and baggy.

"Wait, it wasn't a dream?" Shadow said, throwing the blanket he was covered in off, revealing the red and green pjs that he was wearing. "What am I, a christmas ornament?" He spat himself, looking down at his clothes. Shadow decided to ignore his clothing, and attempted to climb down off off the bed. He had to crawl above a wooden guard rail, and had to fall to the ground since his stubby child legs only dangled above the white carpet.

"Gr." He grunted, as he tried to touch the floor; stretching and wiggling his toes as far as he could. "Nope!" He said, grabbing a hold of the beds sheets and tried to pull himself back over the guardrail. But his little hands couldn't grab enough of the sheet and it slipped; sending him crashing on the ground. Landing on his butt with a loud

'thud'. Thankfully the carpet was soft enough that the fall didn't.

"I'm good." The young hedgehog told himself, as he stood up. He turned to the bed, wondering how anyone could get down from the bed without risking breaking a bone.

"What are you doing?" Someone asked asked Shadow from the hallway. When Shadow looked behind him, he saw Silver dressed in only a pair of blue and white striped boxers.

"Trying to figure out how you're supposed to get in this bed, without the help of climbing gear."

"You could try the stairs." Silver yawned out, stretching his arms in the air.

"Stairs?"

"Yeah, at the side of the bed." Silver said, pointing at the end of the bed. Where a set a wooden stair reached up to the bed, and a opening in the guardrails; to get in and out of the bed.

"Oh." Shadow blushed, his face turning red. I wished I would've known that. He thought to himself.

"Were you that thud I heard?"

"M-maybe!" Shadow snapped.

"Well, whatever." The silver hedgehog sighed, "I'm going to get some breakfast."

Silver started walking away, and Shadow followed behind him.

"Urg, stairs." Shadow growled as he got to the set of stairs that he was going to have to get down, before he could get anything to eat. Shadow took it one step at a time, carefully making sure each foot was touching the carpet of the stairs. When he made it down the stairs, he rushed into the kitchen; where Tails was messing around with some sort of machine, and Silver was pulling out boxes of cereal.

"Do you want something to eat, Shadow?" Silver offered, as he looked in a cabaret, "We have cereal, cereal, and if you're interested we happen to have cereal."

"What kind of cereal do you got?"

"We got cheerios, cereal with marshmallows in it, and chocolate cereal. Any winners?"

"Cheerios, I guess." Shadow sighed. He would of prefered to eat one of the other cereals, but since he was already in kiddy pjs, and he had slept in a kids room; he was afraid he was making himself look too childish already. So eating the world's blandest cereal was worth it if he can look more grown up. "Why is there a picture of Sonic on that box?" He asked as Silver pulled out a bowl.

"I don't know." The teen sighed, "Sonic will advertise himself on anything. Which is a good and bad thing."

"Forget I asked. Can you give me a hand up, so I can pour the cereal?'

"Do you think you can handle it?" Silver asked, picking Shadow up and sitting him on the counter. "I'm not sure you can get your hands around the box, and I know for sure you can't pick up the milk to pour it in."

"Hey!" Shadow snapped, giving Silver a glare, "I can still do everything I could do before. So give me the box!"

"Whatever you say, here you go."

"Thank you." He said, taking the yellow box away from the grey and white hedgehog. He clenched onto the box the best he could, but his tiny hands could barely do anything. But he somehow managed to keep his grip and pour his cereal in the red plastic.

"See, I told you."

"Ok Mr. Smarty pants." Silver sighed, "Do you want me to pour the milk or do you think you got it?"

"Of course I can get it!" Shadow sighed, grabbing the two gallon jug, at the handle; and Silver walking away, "I'm the ultimate life-form!" He grunted trying to lift up the gallon.

Stupid Milk! He thought to himself, letting it go. His hands started to sting from the coolness of the milk.

"Do you need help?" Tails asked, looking up from the machine.

"I got it!" The young hedgehog huffed. Instead of picking up the jug, Shadow figured that all he needed to do was tilt the jug, so the milk would fall into the bowel. He grabbed the handle one more time, and tilted the jug forward. "Whoa!" He cried as the jug slipped out of his hand. It landed on the bowel, sending the cereal in it flying at his face, and the milk rolling of the counter onto the ground.

"Hey!" Both Silver and Tails said, rushing to Shadow.

"Shadow!" Silver snapped, picking up the jug "Look at the mess you made!"

"I-It was an accident!" Shadow defended himself, "Why would you get such a heavy jug of milk?"

"It's not heavy!" Silver said, lifting the jug up and down.

"It's not heavy now, since most of the milk is spilt out!"

"Shadow- Gr, whatever!" Silver sighed, sitting the milk down, picking Shadow up and placing him on the floor, "Just go while I clean this up."

"You can't talk to me like tha-"

"Tails, would you please?"

"Yeah, sure." Tails said, picking Shadow up from underneath his arms, "Let's go Shadow." Tails carried Shadow into the living room.

"You can't carry me around like this!" Shadow growled, "Put me down this instance!"

"Whatever you say your highness." The two tailed fox sighed, sitting the four year-old down, "Now stand still, you got cheerios all over you."

"What is with you two?" Shadow asked, jerking away from Tails, "Why are you two treating me like a child?"

"Well for starters, you look and sound like one. Secondly, I guess you kind remind us of Fangs."

"Fangs? Who's that?"

"You know, Amy's son? Though he is a year older than you are."

"51?"

"No, a year older than you currently are; five. Anyways, Fangs spends the weekends here with us, so having you around; we kinda been treating you like we would him. Take yesterday for example; did you notice how we got you your food, and basically did what you asked?"

"Hm, no I didn't."

"Well, now you know why we are treating you differently. Now let me get the cheerios off of you."

Shadow sighed as he walked over and let the fox pick the cheerios off of his black quills. "So has this 'Fangs' kid ever gotten cheerios all over himself before?"

"A couple of times. It's a lot easier than cleaning lucky charms off of him. The marshmallows stick on fur like glue. There, I got them all."

"About time." Shadow sighed, turning around to see Tails holding a handful of brown circles in his hand, "Sorry about that."

"Its no problem, but you need to understand that while you're in this state you're going to have to let us help you."

Shadow looked as if his whole world had just been destroyed. He was going to have to depend on a two teens, on of them being Sonic's sidekick, to make sure he didn't die.

"Tails I'm back!" A female voice said.

"Is that who I think." Shadow gasped.

"We're in here, Amy!"Tails said, wrapping his arms around Shadow.

"Gah!" Shadow squeaked, trying to break away, "Let me go fox!"

"Are you two ok?" Amy asked when she walked into the room.

"Just fine, I was making sure he didn't get away."

"Curse you!" The four year old spat.

"Let him go Tails." Amy sighed, "I need to go get Fangs."

"Why didn't you just bring him in when you came in?" Silver asked, walking into the living room, his mouth filled with cereal.

"This was more of a warning to get anything dangerous picked up and put away." Amy said, darting her eyes around the room before walking away, "And Siver, puts some pants on."

"Yes mam." The silver hedgehog said, walking up the stairs.

"And you can let me go!" Shadow snapped, breaking away from Tails' grip.


	4. Ch4

"Ok." Amy sighed, walking down the stairs, "Fangs is upstairs, playing with his toys. So we can all talk. Now have you guys found anything out about what's happening to Shadow?"

"No, not really." Tails said, as he sat on the couch, using the TV remote to flip through the channels.

"Just that I'm small, and have a high squeaky voice." Shadow sighed, sitting on the floor,moving his feet back and forth.

"Are you guys going to do anything?" The pink hedgehog asked.

"Wasn't planning on it." Tails sighed, leaving the TV on Hunter X Hunter. "Its Saturday, and more importantly; the first day of summer vacation."

"Tails!"

"Amy!" He said, throwing his hands in the air, "What do you want me to do?"

"I don't know, build something that will solve all our problems! That would be nice!"

"You're asking the wrong fox. " He sighed, "I don't care how great of a mechanic you guys think I am. There's no way to bend the process of age."

"Really?" Shadow asked.

"Well, there's nothing I can do!"

Then the front door opened.

"I'm back!" Sonic said, "And I got some good news!"

"You found a way to fix me?" Shadow asked, his eyes gleaming with hope.

"No,um-. Maybe I should rephrase that. I got good news for me! I passed my police test and I'm going on a ride along tomorrow."

"What? When were you training to be a cop?"

"For a couple years now." The blue hedgehog explained, " The police officers didn't seem too keen on sharing the spotlight with an outside source. They actually started charging me every time I 'interfered with an arrest'. So instead of just staying at home, or getting charged with 'interfering', I decided to try for the police force. Anyways have we figured anything out about Shady?"

"Nope." Everyone said, Amy had an annoyed tone in her voice.

"So what are we going to do?" Sonic asked, "This could cause problems if word about Shadow's 'problem gets out."

"Don't worry about it." Someone said, walking down the steps. It was Silver, who had gotten dressed into a pair of blue jeans, and had a grey T-shirt in his hands. "Cuz I have come up with a plan to solve the problem!"

"I'm afraid to ask." Shadow sighed, "But what is it?"

"Don't be Shadow." Silver stated.

"What does that-." Shadow started, but Tails cut him off.

"Lets just hear what he has to say." Tails notice the sparkle in Silver's eyes. It was the kinda sparkle Tails got when he had a breakthrough. So this idea of Silver's wasn't some joke.

"Thank you Tails. Okay, so while you're stuck like this, go by a different name and have an alibi."

"I have a feeling you know what his alibi should be."

"Yep!" The silver hedgehog assured, "With Amy adopting Fangs a couple of months ago, would it be weird for Sonic to adopt a kid?"

"Are you saying, I tell everyone that I adopted a kid?" Sonic asked.

"So you do understand! This way Shadow can hide in plain sight, not having to worry about anyone finding out what's happened to him; and the government won't be able to find him."

"Huh." Amy said, "What do you think?"

"It's not a terrible idea." Shadow admitted, "But if I'm going to be staying here, I wouldn't feel right just mooching off you guys."

"Don't worry. I'm sure Amy can find something for you to do. Right Amy?" Sonic winked at Amy.

"Huh? Oh, thats right I could use some help with something at work!"

"What 'work' do you need help with?" Shadow asked, raising his eyebrow.

"Don't worry about it." Amy said, "It'll be easy work."

"Mm'kay. Well now we got all that settled, what shall I be called?"

"How about Merric?" Tails suggested, "Though its spelled M-E-R-R-I-C-K, M-E-R-R-I-C looks better."

"How did you happen to come upon this name?"

"Searching for cool words. It's means maurice, a very famous name."

"I guess its good as any." Shadow sighed, "So I guess I'm Merric the Hedgehog now."


	5. Ch5

"Shadow!" Someone yelled, pulling the young hedgehog out of his sleep.

"Gah!" Shadow screamed, jumping out of his bed, revealing the Pikachu design on the sheets, and landing on the white carpet. "What?" He yelled looking up and meeting Sonic's green eyed glare, "I was sleeping!"

"Look down." Sonic said, pointing down at Shadow's red shorts, that had a large dark spot on them. As soon as he looked down, he felt how cold wet shorts stuck to his legs. "That makes it every morning this week you've woken up wet!"

Shadow, with his mouth open, was at a lost of words. Every morning he had woken up to warm sheets from him just finishing wetting the bed, or the sheets cold from him and Sonic waking him up, and his cold smelly clothes, sticking to his fur.

"I-I'm sorry." The young hedgehog apologized, keeping his head down, "I don't mean to." For whatever reason, his chest hurt every time he had woken up wet; it was like a small pin was poking at his heart.

"It's okay. That's why these are called accidents."The blue hedgehog sighed, "I'll take care of it; I need you to get ready for the day. I have some running around to do today, and since Tails and Silver are back in school, you're stuck with me."

"I can stay home by myself, I'm not a child!" Shadow said, opening the bottom drawer of the dresser and pulling out a kid sized red football jersey that said '#1 SON' on it.

"I'll believe that when I'm not changing your sheets. But it actually works, we need to do a few things to finish changing you into 'Merric'."

"Like what?" He asked, wrestling in jersey.

"You'll see." Sonic laughed, dropping the soaked sheets and helping find the head hole.

"I had it!"

"Sure you did. Before you put your underwear on; go to the bathroom and use some of the baby wipes to wipe yourself off. There's no time to run you a bath and I can't have you smelling like pee."

"Okay." Shadow sighed, taking his underwear, designed with different first gen pokemon on it, and shorts; and making his way to the bathroom. As he walked in, the cool hard floor stung his feet, and he shut the door behind him; making sure to lock it. He pulled down his wet shorts and underwear. "Okay, wet wipes." He talked to himself, scanning the bathroom for the wipes. He didn't feel comfortable calling them 'baby wipes' while he was stuck as a child. He spotted the yellow cylinder on top of the toilet.

"Great." The four year old mumbled, as he started to climb the white porcelain toilet.

"Got...it!" He said, making it up to toilet seat. He sat for a few seconds, catching his breath. Even climbing up on the toilet had become a difficult task, like climbing a cliff side. When his heart didn't feel like it was running a marathon, he stood up and grabbed the yellow cylinder. He looked at the picture of a mom wiping her son's face off with on one the wipes. He popped the top off, grabbed one of the cool white wipes, and put it on his leg.

"Ah!" He cried, as the coolness of the wipe stung his leg. It didn't really hurt, but it took him by surprise. As he continued to clean himself, someone came up to the bathroom door and tried to open, making the doorknob jingle.

"Shadow, you ok in there?" Sonic asked pounding on the door, "Why is this door locked?"

"I'm ok" He replied, closing the lid. putting the wet wipes back. "I just finished."

Shadow jumped off the toilet to the ground with a 'thud', threw the dirty wet wipes in the trash can, and started to finish dressing himself. "And the doors locked so you don't just barge in here!" He stated, finishing dressing and unlocking the door, walking out into the hall. "I'm ready!"

"Really?" Sonic asked, "Your shorts are on backwards."

"What?"

Shadow looked down and saw that his back pockets were facing forward. But how was that possible? Shadow was sure he had put his pants on forward. Shadow pulled his pants forward and checked his underwear, just to make sure they were on straight; which, thankfully, they were.

"Come on." Sonic said, falling to his knees and pulling Shadow's pants down.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" Shadow snapped, reaching down for his pants.

"Helping you, because it seems you need a lot of it."

"I can get it!" Shadow said, lifting his feet out of the shorts, and turning around pulling the shorts up.

"Ok." Sonic said, picking Shadow up and running off. When he got the door, he grabbed the first pair of shoes he saw and put them on Shadow, making sure the strings were tied tight, then ran them out to his truck. It was the same shade of blue as his quills, but it wasn't as fast as him. But people prefered him to drive it, than run everywhere. Sonic was sure it was because they were jealous of how fast he could go on foot.

"Stop!" Shadow demanded, "I'm not feeling so good."

The young hedgehog's face was turning a shade of green from motion sickness, the other reason he had to take the truck. Most people ended up throwing up after he ran them somewhere.

"Don't worry that's all the actual running we'll be doing today." Sonic assured Shadow, opening the back door of his truck and sitting him in a car seat.

"What's this?" Shadow asked, looking at the weird looking seat he was in.

"It's called a 'car seat'," He explained, "Little kids have to sit in these for some reason. Are you going to give me a hard time about sitting in this?"

"Wasn't planning to." Shadow sighed. Though he would never admit to liking something childish, the 'car seat' wasn't the worst thing in the world. It was comfortable to sit in, and it had a some sort of platform sticking out the bottom of it that Shadow could use like a foot rest. It even had cup holders on the sides of it, so he didn't have to hold his drink, or reach forward to one of the cup holders to get his beverage. The only problem with it was it had for seat belts that went into one buckle.

"Ok, good." Sonic said, buckling Shadow in. The rushing over to the driver's side and getting in. They pulled out of the stone driveway and began to drive down the road. Shadow, with nothing else to do, stared out the window. If it wasn't for the car seat boosting him up, he probably wouldn't have been able to do that. There wasn't anyone out, since kids and teens were in school, and adults were at work; so there wasn't any hope of seeing someone doing something stupid and entertaining. He tried counting and reading the signs that they drove by, but that got boring fast. The clouds in the sky were a grey blanket in the sky; so there wasn't any point of seeing what shapes there were.

"Here we are." The older hedgehog said, as they pulled into a parking lot. In Front of them was a brick building with a two giant glass windows with mannequins posing with different styles of clothes on. Adults, children, boy, girls; they were all there. The roof of the building was pink and had a giant sign that said AF on it.

"Where are we?" Shadow asked.

"Amy's store." Sonic answered, opening Shadow's door and unbuckling him.

"What are we doing here?"

"To do some last minute changes to you."

"Last minute changes?" Shadow gulped. He didn't like the sound of it.

Sonic took his hand and lead him across the street. Shadow wanted to jerk his hand away, but he didn't want to draw any attention to himself. Though the rest of Soniville seemed to be desolate, Amy's store had people walking in and out of it. Some of the people had kids, who were holding their hands, so Shadow figured it'd draw attention being the only 'kid' not doing it. As they entered into the store, Shadow noticed all the mannequins that were set up.

"What does Amy do?" He asked.

"She's a designer." Sonic said, "She makes clothes if you don't know what that means."

"I knew what it meant!"

"She spends a lot of time working on her designs." Sonic continued.

"Hello Sonic." Someone said, walking up to them. Shadow looked over and saw Blaze the cat walking over to them. She was wearing a pink shirt with a AF design on it.

"Hey Blaze," Sonic said to the purple cat, "We're here for a 'special' appointment."

"Yeah I know." She said between chomps of her gum, "Amy told me to send you two to the back when you got here."

"Okay, thanks." He said, walking away and going to the back of the store. As the went Shadow looked around and saw all the different mannequins wearing clothes, but there was no clothes actually out for people to try on. There was dressing rooms on the sides of the store, so there must of been clothes for people to try on.

"So where is all the clothes?" Shadow asked, looking around again, "This is a clothes store, right?"

"It is, but it's a little different from most. You have to set up an appointment with Amy and then you come in and she custom fits each article of clothing for that person."

"So all these people that are coming in and out are just setting up appointments?"

"Yep." He said, opening a door that had a 'Employees only' sign on it. The room they entered was about the size of an average living room. But instead of a couch and TV, there was a weird looking in a chair, like one you'd see at a barbers, and and wooden structure that looked like an armour stand from Minecraft. On the side of the room there were counters littered with different beauty products on them.

"Amy, we're here!" The blue hedgehog announced.

"Ok, right on time." The pink hedgehog said, walking in behind them.

"So is this going to take long?" Sonic asked, looking at his black digital watch, "Cuz', if so, I need to do some running around."

"Yeah this could take a while. Maybe a couple of hours, at least."

"A couple of hours!?" Shadow gasped

"Yeah, can't rush perfection." She said, pick Shadow up and carrying him over to the chair and sitting him down on it. "Blaze." She said into a walkie talkie, that was pinned to her pink T-shirt. "I'm going to need you back here."

"What's going on?" Shadow asked, watching Amy walk over to the counter and picking up some of the beauty tools.

"Just a make-over." She giggled, walking up to him with a weird looking clear ovals, "Close your eyes."

"What is that?" He asked, obeying.

"These are eye guards. I'll put these on your eyes, and while Blaze and I are dying your quills and fur, you won't have to worry about getting any of it in your eyes."

Shadow felt the eye guards put on and tried to open his eyes, but they were sealed shut.

"Hey! Why can't I open my eyes?"

"Because the eye guards are keeping them shut. Blaze, Vanilla, and I have found it easier to work on kids when they aren't seeing what we're doing."

"But I'm not a kid!"

"Well they're on already, so might as well just keep them on."

Shadow was about to say something, when he heard the door swing open.

"I'm here." Shadow recognized Blaze's voice, "Let's get started."

"Yep." Amy said.

First, Amy grabbed a can of hair dye and put it into a sprayer. Then she sprayed it on the highlights on Shadow's quills, and above his eyes.

"Do you feel alright?" The pink hedgehog asked, pulling the hair dye out of the sprayer.

"Fine." Shadow said, "But what's that funny smell?"

"Hair dye."

"What?!"

"Yeah, that was apart of your appointment." Amy said, grabbing a clipboard, "Sonic said, different highlight color, new wardrobe, and contacts. We just finished blanking it, making it the same color as the rest of your quills; then after that dries, we'll dye it a different color"

"What color are you guys changing my highlight color to?" Shadow asked, reaching for the eye guards.

"DON'T touch those!" Blaze yelled, grabbing Shadow's hand, "Those are very fragile!"

"I-I'm sorry!" Shadow apologized quickly, the sting that had been in his chest earlier had appeared again.

"It's okay, "Blaze said, in a calmer tone, "You'll see what your new highlights are when we're done."

Shadow just sighed, as he slumped over in the chair. The fumes from the hair dye was starting to make him feel light headed and the only thing to keep him distracted from it was the sound of Amy and Blaze messing with some beauty tools.

"Okay, Shadow." Amy said, walking back to the young hedgehog, "You ready to finish this?"

She waited for an answer for Shadow, she put in a new color hair dye in the sprayer.

"Shadow?" She asked, leaning in closer to Shadow. "Oh."

Even though she had only been a mother for a few months, she had recognized when a child was asleep.

"No problem. This won't be the first time I had to work with a sleeping patient.

I craeted a discord page for those of you who want to talk straight to me about the story or other stuff:https/discord.gg/6RUJfe7


End file.
